Plum Restaurant in Oakland, California
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Stopping Credit Card Fraud
I rent out my ocean front vacation rental (www.mauimanakai.com) in Maui and recently got the email below. This person wanted to rent 3 units and pay with a credit card. After I quoted him my prices he asked if he could send more money than necessary and pay me to send some of it back to him to allegedly cover air travel for the fake travelers.
Being suspicious, I did a Google search using the entire email. And found out he was a fraud. I did a IP address lookup on the sourcing email and found that it was sent from Kenya.
Thinking it might be a good idea to notify the credit card company, I called my processor Heartland Payment Systems. They gave me what turned out to be the wrong number for Citibank. After explaining for the 3rd time, CitiBank told me to fax the email to a number and there was nobody in the fraud unit I could talk to. I also told them they wouldn't see the raw email source and find the originating IP address if I faxed it. They didn't understand and told me to email it to abuse@citibank.com. I did. No response. I emails Microsoft Hotmail and they responded.
I also emailed the sourcing ISP. All the email addresses on their site bounced back.
I really don't want to hear about banks complaining about credit card fraud (whenever Congress talks about it they bitch) costing them money when they don't seem to make any effort to stop the crooks!
Initial email:
Being suspicious, I did a Google search using the entire email. And found out he was a fraud. I did a IP address lookup on the sourcing email and found that it was sent from Kenya.
Thinking it might be a good idea to notify the credit card company, I called my processor Heartland Payment Systems. They gave me what turned out to be the wrong number for Citibank. After explaining for the 3rd time, CitiBank told me to fax the email to a number and there was nobody in the fraud unit I could talk to. I also told them they wouldn't see the raw email source and find the originating IP address if I faxed it. They didn't understand and told me to email it to abuse@citibank.com. I did. No response. I emails Microsoft Hotmail and they responded.
I also emailed the sourcing ISP. All the email addresses on their site bounced back.
I really don't want to hear about banks complaining about credit card fraud (whenever Congress talks about it they bitch) costing them money when they don't seem to make any effort to stop the crooks!
Initial email:
HELLO RESERVATION DESK,
I WILL LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU CAN OFFER 4 OF MY GUESTS ACCOMMODATION AT
YOUR PLACE FROM THE DATES BELOW.
ROOM TYPE:3 STANDARD ROOMS
CHECK IN: 15th/4/2011
CHECK OUT: 20/4/2011
Mr James Matty & Mrs Sandra Matty................STANDARD ROOM
Master Lindsay Matty............STANDARD ROOM
Miss Anita Matty...............STANDARD ROOM
KINDLY CONFIRM IF YOU HAVE AVAILABLE ROOMS AND ALSO CAN YOU
CONFIRM IF YOU ACCEPT VISA AND MASTER CREDIT CARDS FOR PAYMENTS
FOR THE ACCOMMODATION.
WARM REGARDS,
Regard.
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